i5 or i7 in 13" rMBP 2013

I will soon buy the new 13 rMBP. I've already decided on rMBP over MBA and 13 over 15. I will max both RAM at 16gb and storage at 1TB. But I haven't decided on i5 or i7. What are the pros and cons of i7 over i5 or is it simply $200.

I will soon buy the new 13 rMBP. I've already decided on rMBP over MBA and 13 over 15. I will max both RAM at 16gb and storage at 1TB. But I haven't decided on i5 or i7. What are the pros and cons of i7 over i5 or is it simply $200.

Thanks,

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If the $200 isn't a big deal to you, I'd say go for the i7.

I was going back and forth on the same question, but ended up ordering 2.6/16GB/1TB, and I'm very pleased with the performance, and have the battery life estimated at 11:30.

The only difference between the Haswell 2.6 i5 and 2.8 i7 in the 13" is the GHz and that the i7 has 4 MB of L3 cache, while the i5 has 3 MB. Everything else about these processors is the same, they are both dual core processors that support HyperThreading.

The Haswell 13" gets a ~3-5% performance boost in moving from the 2.6 i5 to 2.8 i7.

The only difference between the Haswell 2.6 i5 and 2.8 i7 in the 13" is the GHz and that the i7 has 4 MB of L3 cache, while the i5 has 3 MB. Everything else about these processors is the same, they are both dual core processors that support HyperThreading.

The Haswell 13" gets a ~3-5% performance boost in moving from the 2.6 i5 to 2.8 i7.

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Ah, I was looking at regular i5 and i7s used in computer building, I didn't know Apple uses different types of processors.

Using the model numbers, you can look up the CPUs on Intel's website to check the GPU clocks.

IMO if I were to buy a rMBP I would only consider the i5s, because CPUs these days (including the Sandy Bridge i5 in my 2011 MBA) have more than enough power than you actually need. The only reasons for me to replace my MBA are (1) memory, (2) battery wear, and (3) weak graphics ... none of which have anything to do with CPU.

Using the model numbers, you can look up the CPUs on Intel's website to check the GPU clocks.

IMO if I were to buy a rMBP I would only consider the i5s, because CPUs these days (including the Sandy Bridge i5 in my 2011 MBA) have more than enough power than you actually need. The only reasons for me to replace my MBA are (1) memory, (2) battery wear, and (3) weak graphics ... none of which have anything to do with CPU.

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Whole heatedly agree!

I actually used Sandy Bridge Celeron and Pentium CPU's in my own custom built HTPC and media server, respectively. Provided that both systems ran with enough RAM and SSD drives, you would never be able to tell what was under the hood based on the perceived speed/performance in their respective tasks. Even my Dell D630, running a Core 2 Duo from 2007, is still quite capable at running every day basic applications today and boots to Windows within 30 seconds, thanks to also having an SSD drive.

OP, unless you are a power user that requires every last drop of CPU performance for your applications (and you would know if you were ), an i5 will be more than enough for general usage.

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